Tag Archives: family tree

Family heritage

It’s amazing how enthusiastic children can become about talking history, especially talking family history. They’re endlessly fascinated to know about your life as a child, before they were born. They love facts about their own history, where they came from and who everyone is.
A good starting point is an old photograph album. If you don’t have one, don’t despair. Now’s the time to get that box of old photographs from the roof and go through it together with the kids.

Photo Box

Get printing

You can preserve this knowledge in a special book, which the whole family can contribute to. You can sort and print photographs (instead of leaving them unprinted on your laptop) and add those to family stories and traditions. There’s something supremely satisfying about having an actual book for everyone to handle and share. Often an older family member is only too pleased to explain who’s who.

Make a family tree

Then you can create a simple family tree. Here’s what you’ll need to make one:
1 fairly large piece of thick white paper or card (no larger than A3),
Brown and/or black felt-tipped pens and sheets of light and/or darker green paper Alternatively, simply use poster paints or a combination of all the above.
Scan and print photographs of the various family members. Stick to faces, as these are more recognisable for small children, especially if they don’t see some family members very often. We made a family tree for Binky Bear himself.
If really short of time, here’s a link to the outline of a tree, which you can download and print on a sheet of A4:
https://modernparentsmessykids.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/familytreePDF.pdf

Looking at evidence

Finding things out is a useful skill to develop. Learning how to ask questions and listen carefully to answers is something we all need to do. Interviewing a real human being gives life to a story, as opposed to researching stuff on the Internet.
Interacting face to face with real people away from a screen is something that we at Binky Bear are really keen to see children develop. So here’s a fun game to try together:
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/history/evidence.htmTalking about what you are doing and doing things together is what Binky Bear books are all about. Check out our adventures here.